This invention relates to a machine for producing curds and separating the curds from the whey. The whey may then be used for producing cottage cheese in the same machine.
For producing curds for making cheese and similar dairy products, conventionally milk is allowed to curdle in open stationary vats mounted on an elevated pedestal and provided with an outlet aperture near the bottom. When the milk has curdled and the curds have been broken up, the outlet aperture is opened and the whey together with the curds is conducted through a flexible pipe into a collecting vat provided with a retaining net intermediately of its height. Thus the whey passes through the net to the bottom of the vat from where it is removed through a discharge aperture whereas the curds are retained on the net.
However, due to the turbulent flow of the curds mixed with whey from the curdling vat through the flexible pipe, the mixture of whey and curds reaches the collecting vat at a relatively high speed and in a vortex flow. Therefore, the curds tend to break up and a great deal thereof is discharged through the net together with the whey, whereby the yield is reduced. Also the rough treatment to which the curds are thus subjected is harmful to the organoleptic properties thereof.
A further drawback of the conventional mostly circular vats for curdling milk consists in that they have to be supported at a certain height from the ground to permit them to be discharged and have to be surrounded by footboards to enable them to be inspected with the aid of a small movable staircase placed adjacent the footboard. All this involves a considerable amount of expenditure and a cumbersome installation.